Driving in the deep freeze

Some observations from driving around in snow covered roads in sub-zero conditions in Rochester, NY.

1. I have the winter wheel set. The roads have been snow covered with packed snow. The tires seem just fine. I have driven a variety of vehicles with winter tires, the rear wheel drive i3 with winter tires seems as good as the rest (Audi S5, BMW 325Xi, etc). My drive way has a fairly steep entrance, and there has been no issue with the car thus far. The skinny tires and decent ground clearance are very helpful.

2. The windshield heating is not as robust as that in MB B class electric with the heated windshield. But it does work. I keep the speed at 3 or 4, and temp at 66. The wiper and washers seem to do good job on the front and back.

3. Use departure time setting while plugged into an EVSE as it preconditions the cabin and the battery. Even a half hour makes a big difference.

4. The sensors in the front, back, and side need to brushed clean of snow or the parking system goes haywire. Just another step: brush them while brushing the windshield.

5. Eco-pro is definitely recommended over Comfort, not just to have a larger range but also for better control when accelerating on snow packed roads. The stability system does a great job of keeping it all together. No problem with re-gen braking causing any slips. But I have not driven on ice yet.

6. Seat heating is nice, but MB B class electric has seat back heating as well. Nicer. I wish that my car had a heated steering wheel.

What has been your experience?

hamgolfer said:

6. Seat heating is nice, but MB B class electric has seat back heating as well. Nicer. I wish that my car had a heated steering wheel.

What has been your experience?

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I'm quite sure my i3 heats both bottom and back of the seat. I stand to be corrected as I do not feel much need for it and use it sparingly. I'd love to have heated steering wheel though.

hamgolfer said:

Some observations from driving around in snow covered roads in sub-zero conditions in Rochester, NY.

1. I have the winter wheel set. The roads have been snow covered with packed snow. The tires seem just fine. I have driven a variety of vehicles with winter tires, the rear wheel drive i3 with winter tires seems as good as the rest (Audi S5, BMW 325Xi, etc). My drive way has a fairly steep entrance, and there has been no issue with the car thus far. The skinny tires and decent ground clearance are very helpful.

2. The windshield heating is not as robust as that in MB B class electric with the heated windshield. But it does work. I keep the speed at 3 or 4, and temp at 66. The wiper and washers seem to do good job on the front and back.

3. Use departure time setting while plugged into an EVSE as it preconditions the cabin and the battery. Even a half hour makes a big difference.

4. The sensors in the front, back, and side need to brushed clean of snow or the parking system goes haywire. Just another step: brush them while brushing the windshield.

5. Eco-pro is definitely recommended over Comfort, not just to have a larger range but also for better control when accelerating on snow packed roads. The stability system does a great job of keeping it all together. No problem with re-gen braking causing any slips. But I have not driven on ice yet.

6. Seat heating is nice, but MB B class electric has seat back heating as well. Nicer. I wish that my car had a heated steering wheel.

What has been your experience?

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Ditto on everything from here in Albany, with emphasis on heated steering wheel (I've yet to use the seats; I own long coats for that) Also, the improved traction (because of modulated acceleration) while driving slippery roads in Eco Pro is very noticeable. However, considering its light weight, be careful of traversing plowed slough/snow that is dense and heavy. It doesn't take much for that crud to leverage your tires out of contact; fresh, soft snow does not present this problem.

Also, heat and defrost is puny, and you should see the condensation a Newf dog or two in the back seat will make! I would also add that keeping the rear camera eye clean in salty/sloppy road spray is a daily chore; wish it were mounted higher--in the path of the rear wiper--or not in the typical wagon/fastback aero vortex.

Most significant, because many of my daily trips are only a couple of miles, park for an hour or two and return home, I have stopped pre-conditioning the batteries as a waste of an hour or more of utility electricity for any potential efficiency gained over two miles. If I am traveling farther or making a series of brief stops, I'll condition them, but given the presumed draw to warm them, (If you preset a time, it can come on as much as two hours early) I'll just take the 20% efficiency hit. IF, however, by NOT conditioning them I am endangering battery life, I need to know that.

Finally, I'll add that I appreciate the convenience of not having to hard-choke-start or warm up an ICE when moving the car just for snow plowing or even worrying about keeping the revs low when stuck in the cold.

How do your i3s perform in freezing cold temperatures?

We test drove an i3 in Chicago during a day where the temperature was about 0f ... The vehicle the salesperson brought out for us to test had been sitting on the lot and was brought without much warm up time. As much as he tried to talk up how fast the vehicle performed it felt far slower than our Nissan Leaf. "Do you feel that speed?" "No .... Is there a sport mode I'm missing?"

That said, in temperatures like these, our Leaf is always warmed up before we get to it. I definitely plan to test drive an i3 when the weather is a little more reasonable or at least with the sales dept having enough of an opportunity to get one warmed up for a while before we come to try it out.

Otherwise if we go with an i3 the heated steering wheel in the Leaf will be missed. Though I do hope for a better experience with BMW service depts vs Nissan service depts.

dw81 said:

The vehicle the salesperson brought out for us to test had been sitting on the lot and was brought without much warm up time. As much as he tried to talk up how fast the vehicle performed it felt far slower than our Nissan Leaf. "Do you feel that speed?" "No .... Is there a sport mode I'm missing?"

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Having both (i3 and Leaf) I fully agree - the Leaf feels quicker. But only because it jerks you off the line, while i3 gradually releases the torque over first few feet. So the Leaf jumps... and nothing happens later. The i3 seems like it's contemplating whether it should accelerate or not, but then it makes up it's mind and flies away. My wife loves i3's acceleration - the lack of initial jump makes it feel so smooooooth.

Odd, I find exactly the opposite. We always drove the Leaf in D becuase it felt so sluggish in Eco. The i3 feels too quick off the mark in Comfort and we both always use EcoPro.

Hello from Syracuse NY, roughly 1/2 way between my I3 friends in Rochester and Albany. Current total snowfall is about 105 inches, a foot shy of the season average. For those not from this area, we are on track for the coldest February on record.

I think the I3 does well in the snow! perahaps not quite as good traction off the line as my subaru baja with [good] snow tires, although it seems to stop better.

I tend to drive in eco pro mode in start/stop traffic - but comfort mode on the highway. I find comfort is better at keeping the windows from fogging, especially when its < 10 deg F out. When its below zero - I have even been drving with the windshield defroster on the entire ride. Below -10 deg F, the back windows generally stay fogged even with just me in the car.

Where I find the I3 exceptional: tracking straight and true when the passenger side tires hit the slush/crud snow on the right side of the road...which is quite common on the county highways before the plows have made multiple passes.

Biggest winertime surpirse: That the increased rolling friction on snow covered roads does not decrease the range as much as I had expected - far less of a factor than wind and speed in my driving. I do enjoy saying increased rolling friction on snow covered roads.....

Biggest concern: Build up of sand and small stones, used in local communities here to help with traction, under the rear doors. It collects around the bottom of the door and the carbon frame - it can't be good for that foam pad that lines things up. I need to take a picture and send it to the dealer and concierge folks

I have also noticed that the I3 does NOT like snow/ice build up in the wheels/rims at highway speeds - especially when its in the front wheels. First time it happened it was downright scary - I have been vigillent in removing it since - which I have never felt compelled to do with other cars

Cheers

SustainableMe said:

I do enjoy saying increased rolling friction on snow covered roads.....

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I'm curious for those of you experiencing fogging if you have the Auto button pressed and the A/C. In my previous BMWs I always had A/C on with Auto year round. My sales guy gave me the tip about it helping in winter with fogging. And it really helped!

Currently, I'm not getting any fogging and so have not engaged A/C in the belief that I may be saving some electrons.

I'd be interested to learn about others' experiences.

AC, auto Heat (set to 68) , and auto recirculation all on for me

BMW4Me said:

Currently, I'm not getting any fogging and so have not engaged A/C in the belief that I may be saving some electrons.

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Same here, when solo. With passengers, however, have had to engage AC a few times to clear window fogging.

SustainableMe said:

Hello from Syracuse NY, roughly 1/2 way between my I3 friends in Rochester and Albany.
Biggest concern: Build up of sand and small stones, used in local communities here to help with traction, under the rear doors. It collects around the bottom of the door and the carbon frame - it can't be good for that foam pad that lines things up. I need to take a picture and send it to the dealer and concierge folks

I have also noticed that the I3 does NOT like snow/ice build up in the wheels/rims at highway speeds - especially when its in the front wheels. First time it happened it was downright scary - I have been vigillent in removing it since - which I have never felt compelled to do with other cars

Cheers

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Could you expand on these two conditions? I have noticed a lot of stones and salt in my floor mat (dealer installs the awful 3-D rubber version tomorrow), but I tracked those in. Do you mean we need mud flaps (how Saab!) behind the front wheels?

As for the wheels, do you mean the wheels becoming out of balance due to centrifugally accumulated snow? That is an age-old problem with my high-performance wide-wheeled 5 series predecessors, but have not felt any wheel shake from snow build up on the factory winter wheel set....heck, they are so skinny, I can't imagine snow collecting anywhere.

The main reason I went for the awful 3-D mat is that the carpet version looks filthy, but NEVER DRIES OUT with my short trips and puny heater system. :x

BrianStanier said:

Odd, I find exactly the opposite. We always drove the Leaf in D becuase it felt so sluggish in Eco. The i3 feels too quick off the mark in Comfort and we both always use EcoPro.

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Probably different driving conditions. The bulk of our driving with the Leaf is on Chicago city streets where 35mph is considered blazing. ECO mode is always on and it's driven in B mode in those situations. On the expressway too with speeds varying between 45 and 75 we never felt the Leaf was slow. D mode ECO off for merging and back on when in traffic.

I've been doing more research on the i3 and I really think that car felt so slow due to lack of preconditioning on a day of subzero (Fahrenheit) temperatures. We're definitely going to try one again when the weather has warmed up a bit.

That all said .... The superior seat heaters in the i3 did NOT go unnoticed. (The Leaf's cycle on and off while the i3 kept them on)

i3 - 170Hp
Leaf 107Hp
i3 - ~2700#
Leaf ~3200#
i3 ~16#/Hp
Leaf ~30#/Hp
The i3 has more finesse, it certainly IS faster, but it may not appear that way.

FWIW, the i3 has a larger on-board charger than even the Leaf's optional unit. And, at least on the BEV, the heat pump is standard (in the USA, and the 2015's include the DC fast charging as well).

Having both (i3 and Leaf) I fully agree - the Leaf feels quicker. But only because it jerks you off the line, while i3 gradually releases the torque over first few feet. So the Leaf jumps... and nothing happens later. The i3 seems like it's contemplating whether it should accelerate or not, but then it makes up it's mind and flies away. My wife loves i3's acceleration - the lack of initial jump makes it feel so smooooooth.

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:?

not so here

The i3 is brutal off the line and keeps pulling in Comfort mode

I usually drive in Ecopro mode and only switch to comfort when I want to show off



:lol:

Im in Syracuse and have been considering buying an i3 for my wife. is it going to be diffacult for her to finess the instant torque to the rear wheels in the winter? Ill get her a set of Nokians or Blizzacks.

The car has a fairly aggressive torque control. Of the available (two) winter tires in the USA, I'd opt for the NOkians. I have the Bridgestones, and they have been fine, but I think the Nokians will be better assuming I have the car when these wear out. In a snow-covered parking lot, when I tried just flooring the pedal, it did not spin the wheels, and only very slowly accelerated while flashing the traction control light, so getting turned around, IMHO, would be hard. One thing that will take a little learning is regenerative braking, but again, if that causes the wheels to slip, it will eventually shut that down. It isn't hard to learn to feather the pedal to adjust the regen. If you really need to stop as fast as possible, clamping down on the brake pedal works best, then the ABS is using all the wheels at their best advantage to stop. This is true for nearly any car, but most people do not smash the brakes and hold it, but it does work best when you have ABS (and pretty much all new cars do these days).